Feel Better, Live More with Dr Rangan Chatterjee

My guest today has spent his entire career, trying to understand mental illness.  What’s really causing it – and how can we better manage it.   Dr Chris Palmer is Director of the Department of Postgraduate and Continuing Education at McLean Hospital, Massachusetts and an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.    In today’s episode, he shares some of the profound insights he's...

Finding your purpose in life can have a positive impact on your health and wellbeing. So how can you start finding yours?  Feel Better Live More Bitesize is my weekly podcast for your mind, body, and heart. Each week I’ll be featuring inspirational stories and practical tips from some of my former guests.   Today's clip is from episode 334 of the podcast with Jay Shetty - a former monk and one of...

Aged 102 (and a half!) years, today’s guest is the oldest person I’ve welcomed onto the show. Dr Gladys McGarey is co-founder of the American Holistic Medical Association and author of the fantastic new book, The Well-Lived Life: A 102-year-old Doctor’s Secrets to Health and Happiness at Every Age. Many people consider Gladys to be the ‘mother of holistic medicine’. For years now, she has been try...

CAUTION ADVISED: this podcast contains swearing. For the past few decades, almost every year, levels of depression and anxiety have increased across the Western world. But why?  Feel Better Live More Bitesize is my weekly podcast for your mind, body, and heart. Each week I’ll be featuring inspirational stories and practical tips from some of my former guests.   Today’s clip is from episode 94 of t...

CAUTION: This podcast discusses fasting, and its advice may not be suitable for anyone with an eating disorder. If you have an existing health condition or are taking medication, always consult your healthcare practitioner before going for prolonged periods without eating. I first spoke to today’s guest on Episode 342 - and that episode has become one of the most downloaded episodes of the year -...

Today’s episode is a re-release of a conversation I had just over 2 years ago, a few weeks after completing the London marathon for the very first time. I have decided to re-release it because I am seeing so much online about people being injured, struggling with their running, their walking or their sport. I believe that this conversation - and my wonderful guest - can help. My guest is my dear f...

In the UK, one in 14 people over 65 will develop dementia, with that figure rising to one in six once we’re over 80. But there are plenty of simple, enjoyable things that we can all start doing right now to improve our brain health and stave off age-related dementia. Feel Better Live More Bitesize is my weekly podcast for your mind, body, and heart.  Each week I’ll be featuring inspirational stori...

CAUTION: This podcast discusses fasting and its advice may not be suitable for anyone with an eating disorder. If you have an existing health condition or are taking medication, always consult your healthcare practitioner before going for prolonged periods without eating. Research has shown that around 50 percent of us currently spread our meals and snacks across 15 or more hours of the day. But h...

What if the most courageous, compassionate thing you could do in life, was to learn how to be with yourself? It’s a powerful, perhaps surprising idea put forward by this week’s guest, the Buddhist monk, meditation teacher and author Gelong Thubten.    Thubten became a monk back in 1993 after suffering from severe physical and mental burnout whilst following his dream of becoming an actor in New Yo...

What do you regret in your life? Are there things you wish you’d done – or not done? Society tells us not to look back and instead to focus on the positive, but could sitting with the discomfort of a regret allow us to grow? Feel Better Live More Bitesize is my weekly podcast for your mind, body, and heart. Each week I’ll be featuring inspirational stories and practical tips from some of my former...

When I started medical school in 1995, we were taught that one in four people was likely to develop cancer in their lifetime. Today, that statistic has changed to one in two – a rapid rise that can’t be explained by genetics. But if our modern diet and lifestyles are the cause, we have more control than we might think. That’s the message my guest, Professor Thomas Seyfried, has worked tirelessly t...

Once we learn how to unlock the power of our mind, we can create huge change in our lives for both our health and happiness. Feel Better Live More Bitesize is my weekly podcast for your mind, body, and heart.  Each week I’ll be featuring inspirational stories and practical tips from some of my former guests. Today's clip is from episode 266 of the podcast with Dr Joe Dispenza, a New York Times bes...

What do you think you might be saying on your deathbed? Will you be looking back at your life with a sense of joy and completeness, or, do you think that you might be consumed with regret? As this week’s guest shares, “It’s easy to assume that you will live with great health to a ripe old age, then die peacefully in your sleep wearing your favourite pyjamas but it doesn’t work out that way for mos...

Our brains are plastic and can change at any age, and we can take action to make them healthier, younger and stronger. Feel Better Live More Bitesize is my weekly podcast for your mind, body, and heart.  Each week I’ll be featuring inspirational stories and practical tips from some of my former guests. Today's clip is from episode 325 of the podcast with neuroscientist and Professor of Neural Scie...

I think it’s fair to say that human beings have got it pretty good. Compared to most of our evolutionary history we have never been richer, safer, or lived longer lives. Yet, despite that, more of us are struggling with our health than ever before. What’s going on? This is the question that my guest today has spent years trying to answer.   Dr Anders Hansen is a Swedish psychiatrist, a globally re...

When was the last time you ‘learned to read’? For most of us, it was in the early years of primary school, and you probably haven’t given much thought to that skill set since. But what if you could read smarter, faster and accelerate your capacity for learning – at any age? This week’s guest is here to show you how. Jim Kwik grew up thinking of himself as the ‘boy with the broken brain’. A traumat...

Getting a bird’s eye view on our life, noticing patterns and perhaps making different choices can help not only our mental health and emotions, but our physical health too. Feel Better Live More Bitesize is my weekly podcast for your mind, body, and heart.  Each week I’ll be featuring inspirational stories and practical tips from some of my former guests. Today’s clip is from episode 263 of the po...

For thousands of years, humans have used storytelling to enhance and change lives. From prehistoric fireside stories, to songs, novels, films, even social media reels, we are hardwired to seek identification and knowledge through hearing about other people’s experiences.   Some of my most popular podcast episodes to date have featured guests who do just this – relating their extraordinary life exp...

CAUTION: If you have uncontrolled hypertension or heart disease it is not advised that you start practising cold water immersion. If you have any doubt at all as to whether you are fit enough to give this practice a go, please consult a qualified healthcare professional. My guest today believes cold exposure can help you battle disease, regulate your mood and help you connect with your true self....

Dr William Li returns to the podcast to talk about his latest book, Eat To Beat Your Diet: Burn Fat, Heal Your Metabolism and Live Longer. He describes it as an anti-diet book for people who love food. It’s a ground-breaking look at the latest science around how we can harness the power of food, to activate our innate fat-burning systems and transform our health. We talk about the common foods tha...

“Behaving compassionately improves the lives of others, it also improves our own lives. There are measurable boosts to health, both mental and physical. Behaving kindly can act as a buffer against burnout and stress, and improve our well-being. It brings us happiness and can even help us to live longer.” Claudia Hammond Feel Better Live More Bitesize is my weekly podcast for your mind, body, and h...

Pollen counts are rising and more of us are experiencing hay fever symptoms than ever before. From airborne allergens to the food on our plates or the chemicals and plants that touch our skin, around 40% of the global population has some form of allergic disease. By 2030, today’s guest reveals, 50% of us will be affected. Professor Theresa MacPhail is a medical anthropologist and writer, who made...

CAUTION: This podcast discusses fasting and its advice may not be suitable for anyone with an eating disorder. If you have an existing health condition or are taking medication, always consult your healthcare practitioner before going for prolonged periods without eating. When was the last time you had something to eat? Was the food consumed at a mealtime, or ‘just because’? Feel Better Live More...

My guest this week is Sadhguru, a yogi, mystic and visionary, who has been named one of India’s 50 most influential people. He is the world’s most-watched yogi, he has more than 20 million followers on social media and more than a billion views on his YouTube channel, where he regularly shares guided meditations, wisdom, stories and guidance for living a more contented and meaningful life.   He ha...

Can we truly be healthy if we see ourselves as separate from nature? Feel Better Live More Bitesize is my weekly podcast for your mind, body, and heart.  Each week I’ll be featuring inspirational stories and practical tips from some of my former guests. Today’s clip is from episode 298 of the podcast with Dr Zach Bush. Zach spent many years as a conventional medical doctor but, disillusioned with...